Door shelf structure



Oct. 26, 1965 w. T. VAUGHN DOOR SHELF STRUCTURE Filed April 30, 1964 INVENTOR William T. Vaughn WITNESSES E m/ M United States Patent 3,214,230 DGOR SHELF STRUCTURE William T. Vaughn, Upper Arlington City, Ohio, assignor to Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Pittsburgh, Pa, a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Apr. 30, 1964, Ser. No. 363,826 7 Claims. (Cl. 312-214) This invention relates to shelf structures in general, and more particularly to a shelf structure for use in the door of a domestic refrigerator.

One of the more desirable features found in refrigerator cabinets currently on the market, is a cabinet having a plurality of shelf structures formed in the inner door panel. In addition to providing increased storage space, the shelves are in a position wherein the stored articles are readily accessible, and easily observed by the user.

A great number of refrigerator doors in production today have a unitary inner door panel formed from a sheet of polystyrene or other semi-rigid plastic material. These inner door panels are generally vacuum formed, and the shelves are produced by providing a plurality of recesses in the contour of the inner door panel. However, most forming processes do not readily lend themselves to providing a front retainer member for the door shelf. It is therefore necessary to provide the door structure with additional components to retain the stored items in the recesses to be used as door shelves to prevent the items from falling from the shelves when the door is opened or closed.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a shelf structure having a front retainer member which is simple and inexpensive to manufacture, and which member is easily installed.

Another object of the invention is to provide a refrigerator door shelf structure having a front retainer member which is easily installed without the need for additional fasteners.

These objects of the invention, and other objects which will become apparent as the description proceeds, are achieved by providing a refrigerator door having a shelf structure comprising a pair of opposed side walls and a bottom shelf wall disposed therebetween. Each of the side walls has an opening provided for receiving a terminal portion of a substantially cylindrical rod disposed across the front opening of the shelf structure. The rod and openings are so designed that one end of the rod is rebeived in one of the openings and supports the rod against rotation. The other end of the rod is then torsionally rotated proximately 15 by holding the one end of the rod and applying a torsion load to the rod. The other end of the rod when inserted in the other opening and released, prevents axial movement of the rod, thereby locking the rod in a fixed position.

The several objects, advantages and features of the invention will become'apparent from the following description in which reference is made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view showing a refrigerator cabinet having the invention employed therein;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary view showing a portion of the refrigerator door of FIG. 1, taken on a larger scale for clarity;

FIG. 3 is a sectional plan view taken on line IIIIII of FIG. 2, showing the invention in detail;

FIG. 4 is a sectional elevational view taken along line IV-IV of FIG. 2 showing a portion of the structure in detail; and

FIG. 5 is a sectional elevational view taken along line V-V of FIG. 2, showing a further portion of the invention in detail.

3,214,230 Patented Oct. 26, 1965 Referring to the drawings, especially FIG. 1, there is shown a refrigerator cabinet 10 having a food storage compartment 11 which is accessible through a front opening provided with a door 12, shown in the open position. The door 12 has an inner door panel 13 which may be formed, by vacuum molding or other processes, from a sheet of polystyrene or other suitable plastic material. The inner door panel 13 has a plurality of shelf structures 14 formed therein for the storage of various sized bottles or jars, to which ready access is required.

Referring now to FIGS. 2 through 5, it will be noted that a shelf structure 14 comprises a pair of opposed side walls 16 and 17, top wall 18 and a bottom shelf Wall 19 defining a front opening in the shelf structure.

As best shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the side walls 16 and 17 are each provided with a keyhole shaped opening 21 and 22 respectively, for receiving a substantially cylindrical rod 23 which serves as a retaining member for items supported by the shelf bottom wall 19. Each of the openings 21 and 22 comprise a circular hole and slotted openings 24 and 26 respectively, extending radially outwardly from the respective circular hole. Reference to FIGS. 4 and 5 shows the circular holes to be substantially aligned while the slotted openings 24 and 26 are offset one from another by an acute angle of approximately Referring again to the FIGS. 3 through 5, it will be noted that the rod 23 has at one end an outwardly extending flange portion 27 disposed at one end, and at the other end, a radially outwardly extending flange portion 28 which flange portions are substantially in alignment. The flange portion 27 has a notch 29 of suitable dimension to receive a portion of the wall 16 as shown in FIG. 3. The flanges 27 and 28 may be formed on the rods by swaging, or other suitable fabricating technique.

In assembling the rod 23 to the inner door panel 13, the rod end having the flange 28 is inserted through the opening 22 with the flange 28 disposed in the slot 26. This end of the rod 23 is moved through the opening until the opposite rod end is in alignment with the opening 21 on the opposite wall 16. The rod 23 is then firmly gripped at a point adjacent the wall 16 and a torque load applied to the rod to rotate the flange 27 to alignment with the slotted opening 24. The rod 23 is then moved axially into the opening 21 with the flange 27 in the slotted opening 24 to a point at which the notch 29 is aligned with a portion of the wall 16. The torque load is then released from the rod 23. With the rod 23 disposed, the inter-fitting engagement between the notch 29 and the wall 16 supports the rod against axial movement, while the engagement of the flange 28 in the slot 26 prevents rotational movement of the rod, to retain the flange 27 from becoming re-aligned with the slot 24.

It should further be ovious that the rod 23 may be provided with a single flange running the length of the rod, which would serve to function as the two flanges 27 and 28.

While the present embodiment discloses a pair of slots 24 and 26 having an angle of approximately 15 therebetween, it should be obvious that slight variations of this angle are within the scope of the invention as the angular displacement of the slots is dependent on the torsional capabilities of the material from which the rod 23 is fabricated as Well as the rod dimensions.

While the invention has been shown in but one form, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that it is not so limited, but is susceptible to various changes and modifications without departing from the spirit thereof.

What is claimed is:

1. A partially enclosed shelf structure having a front opening and comprising,

a pair of opposed side walls,

a bottom shelf wall disposed between said side walls,

each of said side walls having an opening provided therein,

said openings each comprising a circular hole having a slot extending radially outwardly therefrom,

a cylindrical rod disposed across said front opening and having one end extending through one of said openings and the other end extending through the other of said openings,

said one rod end having one flange portion protruding radially outwardly therefrom and disposed in said slot of said one opening,

said other rod end having another flange portion protruding radially outwardly therefrom, and

a notch in said other flange portion for receiving a portion of the wall adjacent said other opening near said other opening slot in interfitting engagement,

said flange on said one rod end supporting said rod against rotation, and

the interfitting engagement of said slot with said wall portion supporting said rod against axial movement.

2. A partially enclosed shelf structure having a front opening and comprising,

a pair of opposed side walls,

a bottom shelf wall disposed between said side walls,

one of said side walls having a first circular hole provided therein and one slot extending radially outwardly from said hole,

the other of said side walls having a circular hole in axial alignment with said first circular hole and having another slot extending radially outwardly therefrom,

said other slot being located about the central axis of said holes to form an acute angle relative to the location of said one hole about the central axis of said holes.

a cylindrical rod having one end disposed in one of said holes and the other end thereof extending through the other of said holes,

said one rod end having an outwardly protruding flange portion disposed in said one slot for supporting said rod against axial rotation,

said other end of said rod having a flange portion disposed in axial alignment with said one flange, and

a notch in said other flange for receiving a portion of the wall adjacent said other hole in interfitting engagement,

thereby supporting said rod against axial movement.

3. A refrigerator door assembly having an inner door panel,

a recess formed in said panel defining a shelf structure having a front opening,

said structure having a pair of opposed side walls,

a cylindrical rod disposed across said shelf front opening,

one of said walls having an opening including outwardly extending slot means provided therein for receiving one end of said rod, and

the other of said walls having another opening also including outwardly extending slot means for receiving the other end of said rod,

radially-projecting, axially-extending first flange means on one end of said rod, said first flange means including a shoulder thereon co-operating with said one wall for supporting said rod against axial movement when said rod is in a predetermined rotational position, and radially-projecting, axially-extending second flange means on the other end of said rod, said second flange means being unbroken where received by the respective wall opening to co-operate with said other wall for supporting said rod against rotation when said rod is in said predetermined rotational position.

4. A refrigerator door assembly having a formed inner door panel,

a recess provided in said panel defining a shelf structure having a front opening, said structure having a pair of opposed side walls, and

a bottom shelf wall,

each of said side walls having a keyhole shaped opening provided therein,

said opening each comprising,

a circular hole having a slot extending radially outwardly therefrom,

a cylindrical rod disposed across said front opening and having one end extending through one of said openings and the other end extending through the other of said openings,

said one rod end having one flange portion protruding radially outwardly therefrom and disposed in said slot of said one opening,

said other rod end having another flange portion protruding radially outwardly therefrom, and

a notch in said other flange portion for receiving a portion of the wall adjacent said other opening slot in interfitting engagement,

said flange on said one rod end supporting said rod against rotation, and

the interfitting engagement of said slot with said wall portion supporting said rod against axial movement.

5. A refrigerator door assembly having a formed inner door panel,

a recess provided in said panel defining a shelf structure having a pair of opposed side walls,

a bottom shelf wall disposed between said side walls,

one of said side walls having a first circular hole provided therein and one slot extending radially outwardly from said hole,

the other of said side Walls having a circular hole in axial alignment with said first circular hole and having another slot extending radially outwardly therefrom,

said other slot being located about the central axis of said holes to form an acute angle relative to the location of said one hole about the central axis of said holes,

a cylindrical rod having one end disposed in one of said holes and the other end thereof extending through the other of said holes, said one rod end having an outwardly protruding flange portion disposed in said one slot for supporting said rod against axial rotation,

said other end of said rod having a flange portion disposed in axial alignment with said one flange, and

a notch in said other flange for receiving a portion of the wall adjacent said other hole in interfitting engagement,

thereby supporting said rod against axial movement.

6. The structure of claim 5 further characterized by said acute angle being in the range of 5 to 25.

7. A refrigerator door assembly including:

panel means defining a forwardly open shelf having opposite side walls;

a substantially keyhole-shaped opening in each of the said side walls, at a suitable level for receiving a retainer rod for such shelf, the circular portions of said openings being substantially aligned:

a retainer rod extending between said openings with the opposite ends of said rod projecting into respective ones of said openings;

said rod having substantially radially-projecting, axiallyextending flange means on opposite ends thereof, one of said flange means including a shoulder adapted to abut the side wall about one of said openings to prevent axial movement of said rod in its installed position, and the other of said flange means being unbroken and received by the slot of said other opening to prevent substantial rotational motion of said rod in its installed position; at least one of said flange means being slightly out of axial alignment with its respective slot when the other of said flange means is axially aligned with its respective slot so that said rod must be subjected to torsion Within its elastic limits in mounting it in said installed position.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 390,392 10/88 Niss 160175 943,350 12/09 Holden 312-293 6 1,135,300 4/ 15 Laurette 312-351 1,590,143 6/26 Williams 312-351 FOREIGN PATENTS 5 1,180,852 6/59 France.

CLAUDE A. LE ROY, Primary Examiner.

CHANCELLOR E. HARRIS, FRANK B. SHERRY,

Examiners. 

1. A PARTIALLY ENCLOSED SHELF STRUCTURE HAVING A FRONT OPENING AND COMPRISING: A PAIR OF OPPOSED SIDE WALLS, A BOTTOM SHELF WALL DISPOSED BETWEEN SAID SIDE WALLS, EACH OF SAID SIDE WALLS HAVING AN OPENING PROVIDED THEREIN, SAID OPENINGS EACH COMPRISING A CIRCULAR HOLE HAVING A SLOT EXTENDING RADIALLY OUTWARDLY THEREFROM, A CYLINDRICAL ROD DISPOSED ACROSS SAID FRONT OPENING AND HAVING ONE END EXTENDING THROUGH ONE OF SAID OPENINGS AND THE OTHER END EXTENDING THROUGH THE OTHER OF SAID OPENINGS, SAID ONE ROD END HAVING ONE FLANGE PORTION PROTRUDING 